Owner, Oakley Home Web Design and Secure Ecommerce
Elkhart, Indiana Area
Owner, Oakley Home Web Design and Secure Ecommerce
Elkhart, Indiana Area
Web site designer/producer to small and home-based businesses focused on selling products and services online. Oakley Home Pictures was formed in 1996 (when the web was young) to develop and launch the "Internet Cartoons Forum", an ad-supported community for amateur and pro cartoonists. Along the way, I learned how to build dynamic database-driven web sites, and found it profitable to offer my talents to other small businesses like mine. I create unique high-quality web sites with a distinctive sense of place, integrating secure online sales and backend web-based site management. My technology is currently used by about a dozen clients. I develop in PHP, with MySQL database connectivity, and my client web sites are hosted on Mac OS X servers in a secure server room in my home office. My business is solar powered!
I produce the popular "TameBear Radio" podcast, and sell my own nature photography and daily wisdom at "Wisdom Road". Stop by to hear and see!
Graphic design, illustration, photography, web site design/development/management, HTML/CSS/PHP/My SQL design, programming and scripting, Apple Macintosh/Mac OS X hardware, software, and networking technical expert, home and small business network consultant.
(Public Company; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
August 1996 — Present (12 years)
Web site designer/producer, creating distinctive database-driven web sites with a "sense of place", integrating online sales of products and services. Focused on design, usabilty, and managed growth of home-based and small business web sites that pay for themselves. Oakley Home Pictures hosts all client web sites on Mac OS X servers in a secure solar-powered home office server room. Expertise in PHP, CSS, HTML, MySQL, and Mac OS X hardware, networking and scripting.
(Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)
July 2001 — July 2007 (6 years 1 month)
Apple Macintosh support technician for this small midwestern liberal arts college owned by Mennonite Church USA. Provided support for students and faculty, design and video classrooms, computer labs, and Mac OS X client software and servers. Early adopter (2002) of Mac OS X server-based network home directories, providing students and faculty their own familiar desktop environment on any campus Mac they logged in on.
(Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Higher Education industry)
July 1998 — July 2001 (3 years 1 month)
Web applications developer for this small midwestern liberal arts college owned by Mennonite Church USA. Led design and development of a student online resume database, an international job bank, alumni mentor network, and online admissions application for students applying to Goshen College.
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)
February 1997 — June 2001 (4 years 5 months)
One of the early remote employees writing on the topic of "Cartooning" targeting amateur and pro cartoonists and fans. When I began, the company was named "The Mining Company" (the idea: we were "mining the web" for the best stuff for our readers), later renamed "About.com", which IPO'ed in 1999, and merged with Primedia Inc. in 2001. The About.com web site is now wholly owned by New York Times.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; E-Learning industry)
1991 — 1996 (5 years)
Worked with marketing dept to design corporate and product identity across multiple product lines: primarily educational laserdiscs, CDs and software on science subjects for elementary, middleschool and highschool. Produced product packaging, book design and layout, on-screen photo art and illustration, ad layouts, marketing and promotional materials. Early adopter (1990) of all-digital processes with Photoshop and Quark Xpress on Macs for CMYK image processing, design and layout, proofing and output. Built a four-member design team managing an annual budget of over $0.5 million. Best part of the job: Designing full-size "album covers" (for laserdiscs) long after the rest of the world had migrated to CD-ROM format.
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; TWX; Internet industry)
1990 — 1996 (6 years)
Creator of "Modern Wonder", a weekly online cartoon feature for America Online. Provided graphic design/formatting services for AOL, managed production of other online cartoon features, and hosted the "Cartooning" discussion forum for amateur and professional cartoonists on AOL.
(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Publishing industry)
1989 — 1995 (6 years)
Created and sold "social commentary" single-panel cartoons to regional and national journals and magazines. Editor of "Penstuff", the monthly newsletter of amateur/pro cartooning group Cartoonists Northwest in Seattle Washington.
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Computer Games industry)
1986 — 1989 (3 years)
Produced on-screen art for this Chicago-area computer games company. Produced title art and game graphics for such titles as: "Balance of Power", "Outrun", "Colony", "Paperboy", "Gauntlet", "Indoor Sports", and others. Art expertise on IBM, Macintosh, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, and Apple II personal computers. Initiated 2-person Innovation R&D dept; lead designer for "Willow", a computer game based on the LucasFilm movie (one of Mindscape's Top Ten products in 1988.) Designed game concepts based on "Crocodile Dundee" and "Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera".
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Media Production industry)
1983 — 1986 (3 years)
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Entertainment industry)
1981 — 1983 (2 years)
Graphic design, process camera work, layout and traditional board-based "paste-up". Produced film catalogs, posters and other marketing materials for this film and video rental company, providing 16mm feature films and educational video to schools and colleges.
1978 — 1980
bicycling, environmental issues, renewable energy, peace, mystic/spiritual studies, quantum physics, ballroom dancing, painting, investing, creative writing
Midwest Renewable Energy Association, Michiana Mennonite Earth Group, Assembly Mennonite Church, New Perspectives on Faith, Old Spokes Saturday Breakfast Rides (Bicycling), Tuesday Trivia Night at Constant Spring
Yes I have received a couple but to tell you the truth I dislike the whole idea.